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I have been using Duolingo for about 7 months now and have made much more progress in it than any of the language classes I took in high school and college. I t

by cozos 7y ago

I have been using Duolingo for about 7 months now and have made much more progress in it than any of the language classes I took in high school and college. I think the reason is because course based language lessons focus mostly on teaching grammar to be tested on exams. On the other hand, Duolingo focuses on repetition and practice which helps you retain what you learned and build an intuition for the language.

zeta0134 7y ago
Same. I'm a little annoyed with some parts of the UI (it seems somehow too encouraging) but the basic utility of the app is hard to beat. The streak system is just enough of a motivator to encourage users to keep at it every day, and that consistency is shockingly effective. The UI is also laser-focused to be approachable, especially on mobile, which I think is the right choice given their broad target audience. It's not going to satisfy power users, but that's not the point. The actual lesson content is basic, and you'll want to supplement it with broader learning materials and reading in the target language as soon as you're remotely able, but as a jump start from "never spoken a word of this language" to "able to recognize basic grammar patterns, and get the general gist of what I'm reading" it accomplishes this goal quite well, and for very low effort on the part of the user. I can finish my Duolingo rounds in about 15 minutes every day; the hardest part is just remembering to do it. There's something to be said for what they've achieved there.
busterarm 7y ago
I used Duolingo to start learning Danish and within about 6 months had 5*'d almost down to the end of the tree. I always felt like something was missing and enrolled in actual Danish classes from the university here, taught by a native speaker. Within 4 weeks of class I'd stopped using Duolingo, but I'm still studying and continuing with classes (lessons with a native speaker). I felt that in many places it was inaccurate, prepared me poorly for written conversations with Danes (and don't even get me started on speaking/proununciation), and didn't provide any of the cultural nuance really needed to understand the language and how Danish people construct their sentences. I guess it's good for vocabulary, but not as good as simple flash cards.
- antpls 7y ago
  How are you sure that the human teacher is more "right" than Duolingo ? Teachers will show you their ways of speaking Danish, which is usually very formal and a bit outdated, not necessarily how Danish people actually speak Danish (although their are still a valuable experience in your training). I believe the idea of Duolingo is to "bootstrap" yourself enough into the language that you can read more material about it, and then start speaking with other people to improve yourself with real conversation in real situation. The teacher may be a good addition, but also costs more and may be confusing.
  - busterarm 7y ago
    I have several Danish friends that I speak to. I get that Duolingo is "basics", but it captures a lot of your time that are better spent learning with other means. Off of this, the company has a $1B valuation. They don't charge for their service and it's not really worth paying a lot for. The users who use it the most probably won't pay. I don't know how they're ever going to justify that valuation.
    - antpls 7y ago
      Maybe you are the exact user story of their business model : at the end of the Duolingo experience, the website would become the Uber of language teachers. Online realtime, or face-to-face course in your town with a selection of human teachers. A Platform to match teachers and students. The platform could simply list professionals (with a fee), or take a fee per minute of course video, or a fee per booking, etc

by cozos 7y ago

zeta0134 7y ago

Same. I'm a little annoyed with some parts of the UI (it seems somehow too encouraging) but the basic utility of the app is hard to beat. The streak system is just enough of a motivator to encourage users to keep at it every day, and that consistency is shockingly effective. The UI is also laser-focused to be approachable, especially on mobile, which I think is the right choice given their broad target audience. It's not going to satisfy power users, but that's not the point. The actual lesson content is basic, and you'll want to supplement it with broader learning materials and reading in the target language as soon as you're remotely able, but as a jump start from "never spoken a word of this language" to "able to recognize basic grammar patterns, and get the general gist of what I'm reading" it accomplishes this goal quite well, and for very low effort on the part of the user. I can finish my Duolingo rounds in about 15 minutes every day; the hardest part is just remembering to do it. There's something to be said for what they've achieved there.

busterarm 7y ago

I used Duolingo to start learning Danish and within about 6 months had 5*'d almost down to the end of the tree. I always felt like something was missing and enrolled in actual Danish classes from the university here, taught by a native speaker. Within 4 weeks of class I'd stopped using Duolingo, but I'm still studying and continuing with classes (lessons with a native speaker). I felt that in many places it was inaccurate, prepared me poorly for written conversations with Danes (and don't even get me started on speaking/proununciation), and didn't provide any of the cultural nuance really needed to understand the language and how Danish people construct their sentences. I guess it's good for vocabulary, but not as good as simple flash cards.

antpls 7y ago
How are you sure that the human teacher is more "right" than Duolingo ? Teachers will show you their ways of speaking Danish, which is usually very formal and a bit outdated, not necessarily how Danish people actually speak Danish (although their are still a valuable experience in your training). I believe the idea of Duolingo is to "bootstrap" yourself enough into the language that you can read more material about it, and then start speaking with other people to improve yourself with real conversation in real situation. The teacher may be a good addition, but also costs more and may be confusing.
- busterarm 7y ago
  I have several Danish friends that I speak to. I get that Duolingo is "basics", but it captures a lot of your time that are better spent learning with other means. Off of this, the company has a $1B valuation. They don't charge for their service and it's not really worth paying a lot for. The users who use it the most probably won't pay. I don't know how they're ever going to justify that valuation.
  - antpls 7y ago
    Maybe you are the exact user story of their business model : at the end of the Duolingo experience, the website would become the Uber of language teachers. Online realtime, or face-to-face course in your town with a selection of human teachers. A Platform to match teachers and students. The platform could simply list professionals (with a fee), or take a fee per minute of course video, or a fee per booking, etc